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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
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| By israelinsider staff March 24, 2007 |
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Winging her way to the Middle East, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she hopes Arab countries will recommit to their previous offer for broad peace with Israel "in a way that leaves open the possibility for active diplomacy based on it." Her trip comes ahead of an Arab summit later this month, in which the moribund 2002 Arab proposal for peace with Israel will be up for discussion.
Rice is planning meetings in Egypt and Jordan in the coming days in an effort to attract broader Arab support for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and to encourage more flexibility from Arab states which have not made peace with Israel. She wants to use the Saudi plan, which offers recognition of Israel in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from all territories captured in the 1967 war, and acceptance of the Palestinian "right of return."
The Israeli government has object to the last element, saying that it crosses "red lines" since an influx of Arabs would swamp Israel te and make it unviable as a Jewish state. The Olmert government, which supports a two-state solution, said that Palestinians and their descendants who left the fledgling state of Israel after the Arab states attacked it could only return to a Palestinian state, not Israel.
?You need the energy and the help of moving forward on the Arab-Israeli side not at the end of the process but earlier,? Rice told reporters.
Rice will shuttle between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem and Ramallah, but she tried to reduce expectations for that part of her mission. "It's almost at this point more important, given the upcoming Riyadh summit, to have the discussion with the Arabs about relaunching the Arab initiative,? she said.
Although Rice did not confirm reports from Arab diplomats that she had asked for changes in the original proposal, she said it should be revived "in a way that leaves open the possibility for active diplomacy based on it, not just putting it in the middle of the table and leaving it at that." It was not clear whether she was hinting at the need to remove the problematic references to the "right of return."
The Arab plan offers Israel diplomatic recognition and peace in return for full withdrawal from the land Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war, plus the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. It also calls for allowing Palestinian refugees the right to return to homes in Israel.
The proposal went nowhere, in part because the Arab League presented it as a take-it-or-leave-it deal. Rice appears to be trying to nudge Arab leaders to regard the proposal as a starting point for talks rather than an ultimatum.
Rice also said Friday the United States might someday propose its own solutions to the most problematic issues dividing Israel and the Palestinians, such as the borders of an eventual independent Palestinian state and Jerusalem. The United States has not publicly placed its own proposed solutions before the two sides since the closing months of President Bill Clinton?s administration, which ended in early 2001. |
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